Hot Rod

Social media is often the source of information on some of the most epic cars, ever made. With this in mind, the Facebook group, Exotic Cars For Sale By Owner, currently has a very interesting listing – a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport continuation car, built in 2015, by Duntov Motor Company, which also happens to be a star from an MTV music video.

Until a couple of decades ago, two-door SUVs were extremely popular. Time, as they say, is not kind to anyone, but that doesn’t stop certain tuning studios from bringing them back to life, in the form of bold conversions. That’s exactly what Flat Out Autos has done with a 2018 Chevrolet Z71 Tahoe, which was shown at the 2021 SEMA Show.

The Chevrolet Corvette has established itself as the definitive American sports car. Eight generations later, the car’s legacy is running strong and we have been lucky enough to have gotten many cool versions of the “Vette”. But some people have their own version of the perfect Corvette and Richard Smith, who was a GM technician, went to great lengths to build his vision of the perfect 1968 Chevrolet Corvette. This is the story of a 1968 Corvette named “the Beast”.

Without a doubt, the 2021 SEMA Show introduces some interesting ideas of what the future of modified cars could look like. It seems that, for better or worse, electrification will play a major role in future builds, as demand for crate electric motors is at its highest. Among the many SEMA entries, this year is a 1957 Chevrolet, dubbed Project X.

Cars from the 1980s are slowly rising in popularity, as cars like the Lancia Delta Integrale and Porsche 928 have become particularly sought-after collector cars. When it comes to American cars from that era, there really isn’t a whole lot of excitement, because of the oil crisis and severe restrictions, choking performance out of cars. That said, the YouTube channel AutoTopiaLA is giving us the tour of a 1986 Buick Regal resto-mod that has almost nothing in common with the original car.

Few cars out there look as sinister as a black, 1970s Cadillac Hearse. Apparently, the people at Detroit Muscle thought it would be a good idea to bring a neglected, 1976 example back from the dead. The YouTube video from "POWERNATION" is full of subtle black humor, as it resonates with the type of project, presented here. In case you don’t want to watch the full video, here are the biggest highlights of what would eventually become known as “the Overtaker”.

Cars can be classified into a few different categories with regards to how known their existence is. You have the well-known, the rare, the obscure, and the mysterious. And while the Chevrolet Corvette is certainly a well-known name, even amongst non-car people, the Corvette King Rat by Keith Bell is certainly a mystery. Nevertheless, we managed to uncover some details about it.

You can find some amazing stuff on bringatrailer.com and this Jaguar XJS is a perfect example. Granted, a 1977 Jaguar XJS probably isn’t your first choice of platform for a performance build, but it shows that even a lazy gran tourer, like this Jaguar, can turn into a proper tire-shredding machine. It’s an ambitious father and son project that’s actually finished (yes, such a thing is possible) and now, it’s for sale.

Until about a decade ago, when it came to high-horsepower builds, it was pretty much the Chevrolet LS engines, with the occasional 2JZ or RB26 builds making an appearance. Nowadays, people have started noticing the Viper V-10 as the next platform capable of massive horsepower figures. With this in mind, “That Racing Channel” is giving us an inspiring YouTube video that gives the story behind the “six-second kid” and his 1999 Dodge Viper GTS that makes 3,200 horsepower.

We get it. Sports cars are expensive and don’t even get us started on out-and-out track cars. But nothing’s stopping you from building your own car and on top of that, there are quite a few companies that offer build kits than can be turned into either your next weekend racer or your sporty daily driver. Let’s check them out.

We don’t usually feature tuner vehicles in our wallpaper of the day series. In fact, we’ve been kind of lazy with our wallpaper of the day series, haven’t we? Well, either way, that’s without consequence at this point. The point is that today, we’re featuring a tuner car or, to be more specific, a restomod. It’s a restomod by none other than RingBrothers, and it’s the best off-road restomod that we’ve ever laid eyes on. It looks like a stock K5 Blazer from a distance, but once you get up close, you’ll see the RingBrothers put in some serious work here. It has custom running boards and side panels, and it has even been lifted by an entire inch to make room for the 17-inch wheels. The interior is wrapped in a subtle leather and under the hood sits a GM-sourced, LS3 crate engine that’s good for 430 ponies. In the end, this thing is downright beautiful, and it reminds us of what SUVs used to be. If you want to know more about the RingBrothers K5 restomod, check out our full review. Otherwise, look down to grab our favorite wallpaper or browse through a rather generous selection that are all available for free download.

Here we go again, straying further and further from God’s way. This time, the "sinner" is a yet-to-be-completed creation by a French tuning company called Danton Arts Kustoms based in Vanosc, France. While the guys there are currently working on many wacky projects, the one that caught our eye is an ultra-modified Hemi-powered Porker based on a slashed 997 chassis that is sure to send shivers down the spines of Porsche fans young and old.

I’m not a bona fide tuning fan. While I did enjoy the first few Fast & Furious movies in my youth and thought, just like almost anybody in the early noughties, that flamboyant paint schemes and insane body kits that don’t actually help the car go faster are the business, I’ve never been an advocate of tuning as a whole. Nowadays, I enjoy stuff like Canepa’s 959 that offers modern-day supercar performance while retaining all the visual elements of the original 959, but I also turn my head in a hurry when I see stuff like this much newer Porsche that’s being turned into a front-engined muscle car. To some people, it may seem like this 997.I Carrera 4S Cabriolet is being tormented and is dying a slow death under the weight of that hefty Hemi V-8 but, actually, I’m of the opinion that it’s about to rebirth and, if nothing else, it’ll rival the Half11.

Now, let’s all take a short break from being eco-conscious and just enjoy the sight of this ludicrous 1937 Chevrolet pick-up truck which is one of the fastest diesel-powered trucks in the world. And yes, it has 3,000 pound-feet of torque.

If you drive a Honda Civic or a Chevrolet Volt you’re surely not going to enjoy the huge puffs of black, coal-like, smoke coming from this old school pick up known as ’The Outcast.’ Built by Tony Rizzi, this thing has upwards of 2,300-horsepower, and it revs all the way to 7,500 rpm. A diesel that revs to 7,500 rpm. Let that sink in.

Following a number of teasers in the run-up to the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas, the speed gurus from Mopar, FCA’s in-house performance group, pulled the sheets on a brand-new, utterly custom Dodge Charger concept car, and with it, a new crate engine that puts last year’s “Hellcrate” package to shame.